Love Me or Hate Me?
by Matei-san
Summary: This is not a date." Sara said, "It's whatever you think it is." Shepard said. She just wanted to go out, now what has she gotten herself into? ShepardxOC
1. Chapter 1

Sara stood leaning on the railing of the suite overlooking the Asari home-world, Illium. She was there on a forced vacation, requested by her parents. The large suite they had rented her must have meant that they really wanted her to have a break.

She couldn't help but feel out of place in the suite, everything being so sleek, shiny and new. Sara wasn't used to the sweetness of it all, but then there was the worser side to it.

One: She didn't dare go outside, for her appearance wasn't very common amongst the planet, or anywhere for that matter. She had long hair, which was rare these days, everyone preferring the cool and comfortable shorter hair styles.

Two: Her clothing was also widely unworn amongst the planet. Sara preferred dresses, and sandals to boots, skin tight clothing, and intricate patterns. In fact she liked to keep it simple, casually wearing knee-length dresses almost everyday. They were all white with a light floral pattern calling the hem it's home. Her choice of dress was frowned upon because of how unprofessional it was.

And last but not least...

Three: How far behind she was. Sara almost never used the newer, fancier devices of the century. She like using her hands and meeting with someone in person instead of talking over a com. It seemed very informal to her. And she had been raised to think that you could get nowhere unless you dealt with the problem yourself. Huh, family teachings.

So, there she was overlooking the planet. It had it's own natural beauty to it, but Sara would have like to be overlooking a vast field of flowers instead of this. It didn't have the same natural beauty as her imagination, and she didn't like how the buildings blocked her view of the sky. Not that the sky was pretty.

Then she remembered the people who forced her to go, her old fashioned parents. They had been worried that she wasn't doing anything with her life, to busy reading books when she could be filing reports, or making calls, running errands. Things that she didn't want to do with her life. In fact, she didn't want to do anything with her life at all except live happily.

She wasn't a drinker, or used any drugs. Sara just wanted to get away from the small, unfulfilled life that she had. Being the daughter of an important diplomat was rather hectic at times, but she still loved her father. When she thought of her parents, it always made her sad for some reason.

When she was little they had always spoiled her, and it drove her crazy. Sara would always take the gifts, but give them to her friends because she didn't have any need for such silly things like a gigantic oversized teddy bear.

Her parents did get her a pet once. It was an Albino German Shepherd, a very rare oddity according to her friends. It was obvious that she was very close to the dog, and when he died she remembered crying for days. It really was quite depressing.

Then there was her sister. Her poor older sister, who had never had anything she wanted and was always forgotten about. Sara remembered how much of a drama queen she was, but she was a very nice person once you got past the bitch part. Sara never did get past that part, but apparently her sisters boyfriend/husband, did.

Maybe this was why her parents sent her here... to think about all of the things that she'd done in her life. Sara doubted it, and sighed tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, only to have it blown back out of place by a passing vehicle.

Sara pushed herself off of the guardrail angrily and turned quickly to walk back into her suite. She scowled as the motion detectors opened the door for her. Her home, which was still her parents estate, was kept to a minimum technological wise. She shook her head as she thought of herself, still living with her parents. She was 19 for goodness sakes!

"Ugh..." Sara grumbled as she looked around the large suite. It was too much for her, and she had always like having a much more compressed environment. There was a slick looking couch in front of a large screen, and to top it off an artificial plant was sitting next to the coffee table! The bed wasn't even close to looking comfortable, but she was longing for a place to just lay down and relax.

The sound of her bare feet padding against the ground was the only sound that she heard as she trudged across the floor to get to her bed. She sat down and flopped back, looking at the ceiling. Was she here because she was suppose to sit around and do nothing but mope, and think about why she shouldn't be going out? Sara didn't really know, but she felt like she needed to prove everybody wrong.

For too long she had been the shy girl! It was time to show all of those people, and aliens alike, that she was not just the diplomats daughter! She was Sara Ford, and she was a living being with feelings and emotions, and was able to do whatever she wished with her life!

With a new reason to get up, she did so quickly, and skipped to the door. She slipped on her sandals and as the door opened, she paused to rethink her actions. What would people say to her? Sara walked back into the suite quickly. But she had to do this! She made for the door again, which opened quickly yet again. Doubt's quickly entered her mind, and she turned back around, but only to turn back around again. She closed her eyes and thought, needing to make a decision quickly.

Sara needed to decide before someone stopped and saw her making a fool of herself.

"What are you doing?" Too late. The sound of a deep voice filled her ears, and she opened her eyes to meet the sight of an armored chest. A very, incredibly muscular looking chest. Sara rose her eyes to meet the brown ones of her questioner. She quickly noted the scars on his face, and his short clean cut hair. This man, obviously was in the military. And he was extremely...Sara regretted her thoughts...

...Handsome...

"Oh..." Her high pitched voice was almost the exact opposite of the mans, and she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed about the whole situation. "I was just debating whether or not I should go out..." Her shyness was immediately kicking in, and her cause to go out and prove the world wrong were slowly being knocked down by this mans appearance on her doorstep.

This guy was too serious to just be some military personnel. He looked familiar, but she didn't really trust the military like people that she encountered. Most of the time, back on Earth, the men who were on leave had always hit on her if they didn't have a girlfriend or wife. But this guy was different...

"Why are you so torn about it?" He didn't seem rude or anything, but when you live in a household where you can't bring a guy home without worrying about him getting shot kind of alters you decision a little. Sara remembered once when a boy had taken her to the school dance, and when he brought her home he was chased off the estate.

"Ma'am?" Sara blushed when she forgot about the man, but that feeling of embarrassment was replaced with fear as she felt herself freeze at the sight of the Turian and Krogan. They were both very menacing looking, as they casually walked up behind the military man. The Turian's whole right side was scarred and mangled, and the Krogan looked more menacing than the one that was reciting poetry outside of her building.

"Shepard?" The Turian asked, his tone questioning. "What are you doing?" The military man, Shepard, turned his head,"I was just asking this young lady if she needs an escort." He said cooly.

"And last time I checked, I'm in charge. So let's do our best to help this young lady get wherever it is she needs to go." The Krogan snorted, but didn't say anything as he stifled back a laugh. Sara could feel herself blushing as heat ran to her cheeks. This couldn't be more embarrassing to her, and if her father were here right now she didn't want to know what he would do to these people.

Wait... Sara ran Shepard's last sentence through her head when she realized what he had just said. He was going to take her no matter what, it seemed.

She couldn't help but look down towards her feet, and wait for them to say something to her after their bickering. But... the name that that Turian had called the military man, Shepard... It was very familiar. She remembered her father having to go to some commemoration party for a man by the title of 'Commander Shepard'. Apparently he was a huge war hero, and he had saved the universe from the return of some highly intelligent race.

Or something like that. Sara didn't pay too much attention to the fighting, and her fathers work. It was all way to hectic for her tastes, and she preferred reading, and day dreaming. Her thoughts were interrupted when a gloved hand guided her face up. She blushed even harder that before, and her eyes met with Shepard's.

"Well, do you need us to escort you anywhere?" He asked, waiting patiently for an answer.

Oh God this guy knew his way around the block. She needed to think of a witty comeback fast!

"Um..." Sara remembered a shopping excursion one day long ago with her mother. There was an annoying security guard, and he wouldn't stop pestering them as they tried on clothes. Sara's mother had said,

_"I know I need someone to escort us somewhere, but I don't think I want to have someone escort us anywhere!"_ Sara smiled, her plan already set.

"Well..." She began, but then she noticed that a small group of people were watching their little quarrel. Sara was beginning to freak out, but then she thought of another brilliant idea. It would be strange having a diplomat's daughter being escorted by aliens, but she could always just request Shepard's services...

Didn't that mean that she was asking_ him_ on a date? It wasn't that brilliant of an idea, but it was her only chance to not get stuck with the creepy aliens. Well, it's not that she had a problem with aliens or anything, her sister had just scared her whenever there was an alien that her father was talking to. Sara always thought that they were going to eat her, well except the Asari. She thought they were pretty when she was little.

Sara snapped out of her thoughts when she realized Shepard was expecting an answer this week. Well, here she goes...

"I would..." Sara stumbled with the words, and she crossed her arms and pulled her chin away. She had to do this.

"I would like to request Shepard's services only. It wouldn't look very good if the daughter of a diplomat was seen with alien bodyguards." Sara looked between the three, judging their reactions. The Turian shook his head,

"I wasn't going to go anyways. No need risking my life for some girl I don't even know." The Krogan grunted in agreement. "Exactly what I was thinking." They turned and began down the hallway.

"She's all yours Shepard. We'll be back on the Normandy." The Turian waved over his shoulder, and they were soon out of sight down the other hallway. Sara didn't like how he had said that. It made her sound like a whore, which she certainly was not!

"I never got your name...?" He awaited her answer. Sara sighed and walked past him, hearing his booted feet quickly following.

"My name is Sara...and sadly this is going to be like a date..." She mumbled the last part, as Shepard caught up to her.

"Well Sara, it's a pleasure to make you acquaintances." He said formally. Sara shook her head, and turned. Shepard stopped and looked down at her.

"This is not a date." She said seriously, and then quickly began walking again.

"It's whatever you think it is." Shepard said as he caught up with her, hearing her sigh in frustration. Sara held one hand up to her head, and thought one last line.

_"This is going to be a long day..."_

**A/N: Yes, I totally botched this whole Mass Effect 2 thing didn't I? Just bear with me here, I just thought of it out of the blue and wanted to write it. Just imagine what you do in the game sometimes, like I watched my brother play and he just walked up to an old lady and started talking about her daughter? That's kind of weird. And if Shepard seems like a player... well that's cause he is. I know OOC or something. Just bear with me! I am the Little Sister of sooooo....yeah.... **

**I'm kidding. But seriously leave a review, because I don't know how many times people have favorited me and subscribed to me but never leave a comment. That's just being lazy and I hope you take the time to do that. Thank you!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you all for the alert notifications and the one review from VisualIdentificationZeta. I'm glad that you took the time to write, even though it was short! I hope everybody who reads will take the time to do that! On to business... **

**Too more easily distinguish who exactly were following, I took the time to make my own line breaks. Sadly I can't write names in the line breaks that the website provides...**

**And it's not in First Person. Maybe this time we'll see some interesting things, ne?**

**_Sara____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________**

Sara and Shepard stood in the elevator, with Sara on the left wall and Shepard on the right. Sara had her hand's folded behind her back quietly thinking to herself about what exactly she was going to do that day. She didn't know any places to eat, shop, or relax...

_'But then again, Shepard probably knows some places...' _Sara was broken away from her thought's when Shepard spoke.

"Where exactly do you plan on going?" He asked, voice sharp with a hint of curiosity. It was like he could read her mind. Sara's heart started to beat a little faster, and her cheeks flushed when she was unable to answer. This had gotten to be one of the most awkward moments of her life mostly because she didn't even know who Shepard was. If she _hadn't_ heard of him, and didn't know he was a honorable man, he most likely would have ended up getting slapped in the face.

Though he might end up getting slapped anyways.

She wasn't used to being treated so casually. Her whole life she had always been able to give an answer, but right now she couldn't really think of anything right off of the top of her head, and it was killing her on the inside. Her eyes met with Shepard's for a second, but she looked away quickly. He could be so serious at times...but when he was talking to her earlier, he was so light hearted. It was really awkward for her.

But another reason why it was awkward was because Sara had a small, insignificant, tinier than the smallest dust particle...crush...on Shepard. He reminded her of a man that she had a crush on when she was little. He was some singer in a band, and was just one of those guy's with an abundance of women chasing him. Sara soon brushed him off as worthless when she actually read the article on him.

Sara jumped when Shepard's hand was guiding her face up yet again.

"It feels like I have to do that every time I want your attention." Shepard said, which made Sara pull her chin away. She crossed her arms, and sighed out of frustration. He was trying to be such a smooth talker.

"I hope you know that I don't trust you." She said, glaring at him. He chuckled, then returned to leaning against the wall.

"You probably don't even know your way around, right?" He asked, smirking at her. Sara looked away and could feel her cheeks flush with anger. She wasn't one to get angry but this man was stepping on her last nerves. She didn't know what it was about him, but it just made her mad whenever he said something. Maybe it was just because he thought she was some ten dollar whore, but she brushed it off before Shepard thought he needed to touch her face again.

"I'm not going to lie, so...no I don't know anywhere to go." She heard him chuckle again, and then frowned when she looked back at him to see him looking at her, up and down. When he stopped, she could still feel his eyes on her.

"You know..." He began, but Sara raised her hand to stop him. She had felt the elevator lurch to a stop and quickly walked over to Shepard, leaning against the wall next to him.

"Don't say anything, okay? I don't want you to embarrass us when more people get on." Shepard simply smirked, and Sara felt his gloved hand wrap around hers. Sara was too late to pull her hand away, when more people got on. Then she felt Shepard's breathe against her face as he whispered into her ear,

"We don't want them thinking that I'm abducting you or anything either. I like the vibe were giving off now..." She heard him say seductively. Sara blushed harder than she could ever remember, and when the three people that had gotten on the elevator saw them, she quickly turned her head to the side. Sadly for her, she had turned to the left which was where Shepard was.

He chuckled, and then she sighed, giving up. Let the people think they were a couple, what did she care!

Showing Shepard her sign of defeat, she laid her head down on his shoulder...well, arm. He was a very tall man, and a rough estimate on Sara's part showed he was about 6'6. And her being only about 5'5 made it a huge height difference. She took the short time that she had to think to herself about the predicament that she had gotten herself into. The first line that came to her head was,

_'What the hell kind of excuse is that!? I don't think that they would think your abducting me anyways!!! This man wants me to kill him, doesn't he!?' _

Her eyes wandered to the group of people that had gotten on the elevator, and was surprised when it was a mixed group of a Turian, Asari, and a human. She had never seen each race interact so closely and was a bit envious of the human. She was older, in her late 50's, early 60's. Maybe she was easier to talk to, or maybe the whole group was old. Sara really couldn't tell, so she drifted back into her thoughts...

_'I don't really mind aliens...but they kind of creep me out sometimes. Shepard is a little cute-looking when he's serious...what am I thinking!? I want to murder this guy, I swear...' _

After thinking of ways that she could terribly and painfully torture Shepard, she heard whispering coming from the small crowd. Sara turned her eyes at the group, and stared curiously. As if on cue, they looked at her and Shepard and the two girls giggled and the Turian had his palm on his forehead. She looked at Shepard and frowned when he wasn't paying attention to the group that was talking about them. He just had a serious expression plastered on his face.

Sara jabbed him in the side to get his attention, and when he looked down at her Sara could have sworn she heard a squeal from the small group. She glared at Shepard for a moment before whispering,

"Why are you so serious?" He cocked an eyebrow before responding. "What?" He asked, that small hint of playfulness in his voice.

"Just a minute ago you were all calm, and now you look really tense." Shepard smirked before answering, "Gotta keep up appearances." Sara rolled her eyes and continued, "I would hardly consider this an _appearance." _She used her fingers for emphasis. Shepard looked over to the other people in the elevator, "Sure, this isn't an appearance." She frowned at him, and was relieved when the elevator lurched to a stop.

After walking out of the elevator, Shepard still holding onto Sara's hand, she was relieved to see that the streets were not packed. When they stepped outside Sara was delighted at the amount of shops there were. It looked like so much fun!

"You look excited. Have you never even thought about coming out?" Shepard asked as he let go her hand and crossed his arms. "No I haven't if you must know. But I completely regret it, this place just looks amazing!" Sara rushed over to the nearest shop, her dress flowing behind her. When she got there, she was completely overtaken by the cuteness of the small hamsters that were scuttling around in the little pin.

"Oh my, how adorable!!" She held one up and looked at it happily. It squeaked a few times, and Sara couldn't help but gush at the cuteness. Shepard approached her from behind and watched her. She was picking up the things left and right and looking at them closely, sometimes hugging one against her face. He had no idea why they wouldn't bite her, because they always seemed to want to gnaw his entire hand off.

"Shepard, have you seen these!? They are so cute!!" As Sara cuddled with the small things, Shepard couldn't help but chuckle. She was acting like a two year old which he thought was impossible with her. As Sara bid the small hamsters farewell, she wandered to a different store a bit farther away. It looked like some kind of clothing store, and Sara was going through the stock like crazy. It was like she was on a rampage to find something.

Shepard shook his head, and decided that no matter how cold a girl might be they were all crazy about clothes. Well, maybe not all of them, but Sara was definitely one of those girls. It didn't look like they had anything that she liked, and she came back to Shepard with a frown on her face.

"What? No dresses you like?" He asked, as she crossed her arms and led him to a different shop. "No, I just don't like those tight dresses that all of these women wear. I would hardly call them dresses, because there more like robes which is a definite turn off for me." Sara had her arms crossed as she walked, obviously having something to say about the clothes.

"I mean, how can you even breathe in that? It looks almost impossible." Shepard chuckled, and shook his head. "With a body like yours, you'd think that you'd like to wear tight clothes." Sara felt her face heat up, and she began to walk a little faster.

"Whatever. No one will ever get me in one of those things, though." Sara sighed when she saw another animal stand. Those seem to be the only things that she liked so far, so she decided to check it out.

"Oh!!----" She looked at the cute looking fish, and had her face plastered to the glass. "Wow...I've never seen any fish like this before! They are so pretty!!" Shepard again couldn't believe how excited she got over such little things. But it was cute, too.


End file.
